Actors who play parents in Starz' 'BMF' bring emotional depth to Detroit crime saga

More than 20 years ago, Russell Hornsby and Michole Brianna White played a young couple in the original off-Broadway production of the August Wilson play “Jitney.” Working together in a modern theater classic, they forged an artistic bond that remains strong today.

That’s one reason Hornsby and White bring such emotional power to “BMF,” the Detroit-set crime drama that kicks off its second season Friday on Starz.

“She and I have a shorthand because we’ve worked together (before) … We pull from a deeper reservoir than most actors,” says Hornsby, who’s known for films like “The Hate U Give” and roles on TV series like NBC’s “Grimm," HBO’s “In Treatment" and ABC Family's "Lincoln Heights."

White, whose credits include FX’s “Atlanta,” Amazon Prime Video’s “Goliath” and Netflix’s “Dead To Me,” remembers phoning Hornsby after their “Jitney” co-star Anthony Chisholm passed away in 2020. Near the end of the conversation, Hornsby mentioned having a great audition for “BMF.”

“I said, ‘Oh my God, it would be so amazing if we got to do this project together,'” recalls White.

Somewhere, the theater gods are smiling down on the veteran actors, who anchor “BMF” with their performances as the father and mother of Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory and Terry “Southwest T” Flenory, two brothers from southwest Detroit who built a cocaine-trafficking empire known as the Black Mafia Family.

A fictionalized version of the real-life rise and fall of the siblings, “BMF” debuted in 2021 with a storyline set in the Motor City of the 1980s.  At that time, blue-collar families in industrial cities were being battered by a major economic recession. The doors of opportunity that did exist in Detroit and elsewhere were closed to most young Black men.

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In that first season, Hornsby and White conveyed frustration, disappointment and deep love for their children as Charles and Lucille Flenory, hard-working parents who were facing the foreclosure of their house. Watching them barely able to stay afloat financially nudged Demetrius and Terry toward an illegal path in ways that were more complicated and poignant than the typical good guys/bad guys scenario.

Critics have praised “BMF” for its strong family element. As the A.V. Club's review noted, “Along with Michole Briana White, who plays the Flenorys’ long-suffering mother, Lucille Hornsby lends the show its weeping heart. Not many episodes pass before it’s clear Terry and Demetrius will have to raze their old family to build their new one. That’s an affecting and unique part of the story, to be sure, as so many similar kingpin origin stories depict scions growing into the established family business.”

This season, the show is moving from Sundays to Fridays and adding recurring cast members that include “Saturday Night Live” alum Leslie Jones, Oscar winner Mo’Nique, action star Kelly Hu and rapper Caresha “Yung Miami” Brownlee. They’ll join the regular ensemble of Demetrius Flenory Jr., who plays his own real-life father, Big Meech, Da’Vinchi as Southwest T, La La Anthony as a drug kingpin’s wife, Steve Harris as a police detective and, in an unexpected turn, Snoop Dogg as the Flenory family’s pastor.

As season two starts, the Flenory brothers are in conflict as Meech is ready to grow their drug trade beyond Detroit, while Terry chooses to launch a legitimate car-ride service with his father. But there is trouble ahead as tensions simmer between the siblings and their parents, who clash in ways that strain Charles' and Lucille's marriage.

“I can tell you this. It’s juicy,” says White, who can’t spill any specifics, with a laugh. “Very juicy and exciting and all kind of stuff’s going on.”

For both actors, “BMF” is more than just another TV series. Hornsby admits he was apprehensive at first about taking on the role of Charles Flenory, who died in 2017, “because I was actually just tired of playing fathers.” But director Tasha Smith, who helmed the “BMF” pilot, told Hornsby they needed his gravitas and suggested he get in touch with Randy Huggins, a Detroit native who created “BMF” and is responsible largely for its authenticity to the city.

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Hornsby says Huggins told him he wanted to make the father's role an important one, not just that of an adult in the background – and Huggins kept his word in terms of expanding the roles of both Charles and Lucille. “It became more of a family story, not just a story about two brothers who were drug dealers,” says Hornsby.

To prepare for the part, Hornsby looked back at the economic troubles of the early 1980s, when autoworkers like Charles were promised a secure future that they didn’t receive.

“Charles is the one that’s left holding the bag of the ideal that, if I just work hard, I can provide for my family," Hornsby says. "Then he comes to realize he was lied to… His kids are the ones who have the wherewithal and the acumen to pivot, to say, ‘Hey, Dad, I see you and Mother going through it… and it’s going to get much worse.’ And it did.”

Hornsby also created a composite of men from his hometown of Oakland, California, who had the same outlook as Charles. “Those are the men that helped raised me. Those are the men that inspired me. Those are the men that disciplined me. They were part of my village and that’s who Charles Flenory was, that kind of man. A man who was not afraid to get dirty. A man who was not afraid of hard work.”

A big plus was getting to work again with White, who played his love interest in “Jitney,” which debuted off-Broadway in 2000 and earned an Obie Award for the ensemble cast. Hornsby played Youngblood, a young Vietnam veteran working at an unlicensed Pittsburgh cab station, and White portrayed Rena, Youngblood's girlfriend and the mother of his child. According to the actors, Charles and Lucille feel like an older version Youghblood and Rena who've relocated to Detroit.

Off camera, both actors helped encourage the young men playing their sons. "There was just a matriarchal and patriarchal hedge of protection that we put around them," Hornsby says.

Where White was the warm, supportive figure, Hornsby admits he can be a little tougher in the advice he gives to younger actors. “I often say to them, if you sit and listen for a while, you’ll learn a little bit more because that’s how I learned,” he explains amiably.

White, who was contacted about “BMF” by casting director Kim Coleman, says she connected immediately to the role of Lucille. “I just understood her. I knew her,” she says.

That instant connection on the page only grew after she got to meet the real Lucille. “We really look like family and we feel like family… Somewhere down the line, I feel we must be related," she says.

In taking the role, White says, “I wanted to do my best to share her truth as much as possible. I realized the importance of that and (of) her voice being heard … I really wanted to share her passion, her love for her kids, what she really gave to them.”

She also wanted to be true to Lucille’s affection for her husband, which was tested last season when Charles kicked Big Meech out of the house. “They loved each other like crazy, her and Charles. That was very clear to me. And family is so important to all of them, particularly Lucille … Just holding on to family, that meant everything.”

White says people may have judged the Flenorys as parents, but their difficulties were the same as many other families. “They gave (their sons) the best they could with what they had. I always say (Demetrius and Terry) didn’t come from a broken home. They came from a broken neighborhood. The opportunities that were outside the home were very limited for them to live out any kind of dreams that they had.”

White says she enjoys working with both of the actors who play Lucille’s sons and formed a special acting bond with Lil Meech in their first scene together. “Whenever I see him or look at him, he’ll be like, ‘I got you, Ma. I got you.’”

According to Hornsby, the feedback on his performance from the real-life sons of Charles Flenory has been positive. He spoke by phone to Demetrius, who’s still incarcerated, when Big Meech called to wish Lil Meech a happy birthday. “He said, ‘Are you the same brother who played the father in ‘The Hate U Give’? And I said, ‘I am he.’ He said, ‘Alright, they got the right one.”

Hornsby met Southwest T while he was in Detroit for work. “He said, ‘Man, you're killing it, brother … My father would be proud.’”

Sometimes, all you need to hear is some appreciation from your family, real or fictional. Says Hornsby, “To get it from those two gentlemen, who gave me a thumbs up, both of them in separate moments, that was all I needed… I can live with the work I did knowing that they both respect and appreciate my offering.”

Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.

'BMF' season premiere

8 p.m. Fridays

Starz

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 'BMF' actors Russell Hornsby, Michole Brianna White lend depth to drama